Killed by Mo Fan!

Mo Fan was just about to step out when he sensed a shadow stirring beside him.

It spiraled down along the black stone wall and materialized before him. A woman with a strikingly curvaceous figure rose slowly from within the darkness, and the sheer impossibility of the sight left Mo Fan momentarily dumbstruck.

*What the hell kind of skill is that? That's insanely cool!!*

"Teacher Tang Yue..." Mo Fan made out the woman's face — a perfectly shaped oval, with slender willow-leaf brows and alluring, foxy eyes.

"You're all right??" A radiant smile broke across Tang Yue's face.

"I'm fine."

Tang Yue's gaze drifted, and she quickly spotted the Gloom Wolf Beast — pinned in place like a museum specimen. For a moment, she couldn't quite process what she was seeing.

"This... this is..." she said, visibly stunned.

"You've produced quite the prodigy. The Gloom Wolf Beast was killed by him." Head Instructor Zhankong said.

Tang Yue's lips parted in astonishment as she stared unblinkingly at Mo Fan.

Mo Fan, uncomfortable under the attention, cleared his throat. "Let's see to the injured first — the injured first..."

Outside the cave entrance, Mu Bai, Xu Zhaoting, Zhao Kunsan, Zhang Shuhua, He Yu, and the others had all regained consciousness.

The rest of the students were slowly coming back to their senses, clustering near the spring pool like refugees, their bodies still trembling.

Before long, Head Instructor Zhankong and Tang Yue had led Mo Fan out of the cave.

When everyone saw that Mo Fan was actually still alive, every single face wore an expression as though they had just seen a ghost.

They had watched with their own eyes as Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou were chased into the cave. Under those circumstances, even nine lives wouldn't have been enough — the Gloom Wolf Beast would have torn them to pieces.

"Mo Fan... Mo Fan... you're alive??" He Yu had finally come around. The moment she saw both Zhang Xiaohou and Mo Fan still standing, tears streamed freely down her face.

Zhou Min, the class president, saw that both of them were unharmed, and her eyes reddened too.

If Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou hadn't lured the Gloom Wolf Beast into the cave, who knew how many would have died. Whatever else could be said — they had saved everyone.

Several of the other girls, each bearing wounds of their own, broke down sobbing. They had spent their entire lives learning magic in the comfortable setting of school — none of them had ever experienced anything remotely like this.

The boys either slumped on the ground in a daze or kept exclaiming their relief that Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou — their two heroes — had somehow made it back.

They had all believed that having magic meant having power over the world. Back at school, every one of them had been proud and confident — and yet when they finally stood before a real Demon-Beast, they'd frozen and couldn't even cast their spells. If Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou hadn't drawn the Gloom Wolf Beast away, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"Right, how did you two get out of the wolf's clutches? And what happened to the One-Eyed Demon Wolf?" Wang Sanpang and Xu Zhaoting asked.

"What else could it be? The One-Eyed Demon Wolf was obviously killed by Instructor Zhankong. Showed up just in time, too — any slower and those two might've been eaten." Zhao Kunsan said.

Zhankong glanced at Zhao Kunsan's unsolicited commentary and quietly found it amusing. Same year, same class — and the gap between these students was anything but small.

"Now that no one's life is in immediate danger, there are some things I need to tell you." Head Instructor Zhankong said.

Everyone had settled at the cave entrance. The teachers were binding students' wounds while others helped each other wash away blood and grime.

"Throughout your completion of this bounty, we were actually following you the entire time, scoring students who showed outstanding performance — Zhang Xiaohou, Zhou Min, Mu Bai, Li Yueming, and others..." Head Instructor Zhankong said.

The announcement sent an immediate ripple of noise through the students.

So the instructors had been watching them throughout the entire Field Expedition. Quite a few students began regretting that they hadn't put on a stronger showing.

"Then when the Demon-Beast appeared... why didn't you step in?! Were you waiting until we were all dead before doing something?!" Mu Bai said, his frustration breaking through.

To be fair, he had come a hair's breadth from being killed by the Demon-Beast earlier.

"If that Gloom Wolf Beast had truly wanted to kill you, you'd all be dead already — especially you." Zhankong said with a cold snort.

Mu Bai furrowed his brow, replaying the scene in his mind. True enough — if the Gloom Wolf Beast had brought its forelimb down on him directly, he wouldn't have survived.

"Wait — Instructor, you said that Demon-Beast was a Gloom Wolf Beast??" Zhou Min suddenly caught something and asked urgently.

"Correct. It wasn't a One-Eyed Demon Wolf — it was a Gloom Wolf Beast. A Summoned Beast." Zhankong continued.

"Let me explain. This bounty Field Expedition was arranged by the instructors — including the Summoned Beast itself, which actually belongs to Instructor Baiyang here. We needed you to have a genuine encounter with a Demon-Beast, but we didn't want any of you killed in the process..." Head Teacher Xue Musheng explained.

At that, every last student burst into tears.

So it had been a drill all along — but did it really need to be so realistic? They had genuinely believed they were going to die.

And the Gloom Wolf Beast's combat power had been utterly terrifying. With so many of them casting spells, not one had made a dent.

"So that's how those two managed to survive — Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou. It was a Summoned Beast the whole time..." Zhao Kunsan said with dismissive contempt.

"You've got it wrong. Something happened that none of us anticipated. The Gloom Wolf Beast suddenly went berserk and lost control — it stopped responding to Summoner Baiyang's commands altogether. Just as we feared it was about to slaughter you all, Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou led it into the cave. So your lives — every single one of them — were saved by those two." Zhang Jianguo said.

"Oh my god, we were so lucky." Zhang Yinglu couldn't help blurting out.

"What do you mean lucky? Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou saved us! Brothers, just say the word from now on — we'll walk through fire for you, no questions asked!!"

"Thank you for stepping up when it mattered. You're our leaders now!"

Even Wang Sanpang and Xu Zhaoting, that inseparable pair who were usually so full of themselves, couldn't help expressing their sincere gratitude to Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou.

Mu Bai and Zhao Kunsan stood in silence, faces cycling between pale and flushed. They could never have imagined that the person they despised most had just saved their lives.

"Teachers, please keep an eye on that cave — if the berserk Summoned Beast comes charging back out..." Zhou Min put in.

"Don't worry — the Summoned Beast is already dead." Tang Yue said.

"Yes — killed by Mo Fan." Zhankong nodded.

"Oh, good that it's dead, good that it's dead — a Summoned Beast going berserk like that... wait — Instructor, what exactly did you just say??" Wang Sanpang's mind caught up a beat late, and he stared wide-eyed.